On redefining college-university relationship under NEP, tread cautiously

Doing away with the affiliation system by 2035 is one of the major thrusts of the National Education Policy (NEP 2020). Accordingly, colleges must upgrade themselves into multi-disciplinary autonomous higher educational institutions to become empowered to award degrees. In case their resources and circumstances do not permit them to do so, they must be integrated into a university, merged, consolidated or become part of a cluster. If they are unable to do any of these, they will face closure.

Colleges predate universities and have played a major role in the access to and expansion of the higher education system in India. Indeed, things may have been different in ancient times when higher educational institutions were only universities. A legacy of the colonial past, the affiliation system has been seen as a bane of the higher education system, despite the fact that many colleges are globally recognised for their quality. Some, in fact, do better than their affiliating university in terms of the teaching-learning processes.

The National Policy on Education (NPE 1986) felt that the affiliation system needed to be “replaced by a freer and more creative association of universities with colleges” but considering the colleges indispensable, it recommended giving them autonomy. The National Education Policy of 1968 (NEP 1968) had concerns over the deteriorating quality of higher education due to the uncontrolled expansion of enrolment in colleges. The University Education Commission of 1948, too, had argued for stringent affiliation rules and disclosure norms to check the deterioration in standards of higher education and suggested that the intake of students in colleges be limited to a maximum of 1,500. As far back as in 1902, the Indian Universities Commission, too, had urged for stricter monitoring of affiliated institutions by the universities.

Notably, until after the Sadler Commission in 1919, teaching was the function of colleges alone and the role of universities was limited to affiliation, examination and conferment of the degree. Such was the indispensability of the affiliation system that the Hartog Committee in 1929 had observed that “even though the standards of education in affiliated colleges was lower than that of the teaching universities, it was the only way to meet the increasing demand for higher education”.

Despite the rapid rise in institutions of national importance, central universities, state universities, deemed universities and private universities, the number of, and enrolment in, colleges have multiplied from 578 in 1950 to 42,343 in 2020, accounting for close to 78% of the total enrolment in higher education. They employ nearly 80% of the total teachers in higher education, and with 61% being rural and another 11% exclusively for women, they continue to play a major role in providing higher education to the underserved, marginalised and deprived sections of society.

This is despite the fact that colleges are not uniformly distributed across the length and breadth of the country, with college density — measured by the number of colleges per one lakh population in the age group of 18-23 — varying from seven in Bihar to 53 in Karnataka, with the national average hovering around 28. This is also despite the fact that the proportion of government and government-aided colleges has declined over time to become only 22.2% and 13.5%, respectively, and that an overwhelming 64.3% of colleges now operate on a self-financed basis.

The collegiate system in India is characterised by the dominance of a large number of small institutions. About 81% of colleges have less than a thousand students on their rolls and no more than 4% of colleges have 3,000 or more. To this extent, NEP 2020 may be right to observe that being small in size, they are least equipped to offer quality higher education across disciplines. After all, so many colleges affiliated to just 298 public-funded universities are regarded as an administrative burden on the universities to which they are affiliated and distract them from their core functions of teaching and research.

Following the recommendation of the National Knowledge Commission (NKC) in 2007, many states have set up new universities or bifurcated and trifurcated some of their larger universities to reduce their affiliation burden. The latest data indicates that while 227 universities have less than 200 colleges, of which 168 have less than 100, only 36 universities affiliate between 200 and 300 colleges, 12 between 300 and 400, 10 universities between 400 and 500 and merely 13 affiliating more than 500 colleges. The data thus defies the popular rhetoric that universities suffer due to thousands of colleges affiliated with them.

Interestingly, affiliating universities amass huge sums of money on account of affiliation in the form of examination and affiliation fees. With most colleges on temporary affiliation, these are the recurring sources of income for affiliating universities. Lately, in a few states, unitary and teaching universities were turned into affiliating ones to help them improve their financial condition. To ensure a regular stream of revenue, most colleges remain on temporary affiliation, either because the affiliating universities do not want to admit them to permanent affiliation or they do not meet the minimum prescribed requirements for it.

Notwithstanding their critical role in access and capacity expansion, an overwhelming proportion of colleges are of poor to very poor quality. As many as 68.34% of colleges are not even recognised under Section 2(f) of the UGC Act. Additionally, 74.68% of colleges do not meet the eligibility conditions to receive development grants from the UGC. While accreditation has been made mandatory, not more than 20.45% of colleges are so far accredited by the National Assessment and Accredited Council (NAAC), of which only 20.78% are accredited as A grade.

Concerns for quality do warrant reforming the affiliation system. However, given their size and importance, colleges are a critical component of the higher education system and a drastic measure to do away with the affiliation system may disrupt close to three-fourths of the higher education enrolment. Thus, giving effect to the NEP 2020 formulation might prove arduous and easier said than done. In any case, the path to the abolition of the affiliation system needs to be tread very cautiously.

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